From James Russell
You quote Colin Renfrew’s “sapient paradox” that while the human brain has changed little genetically in 60,000 years, behaviour changed suddenly 10,000 years ago (17 May, p 5). Renfrew will no doubt be basing his view of human behaviour on an archaeological doctrine that if no evidence exists on land, then none exists.
I put it to him that it is no coincidence that 10,000 years ago is also when the last ice age ended and sea level underwent its last major change. Any evidence of structures, however substantial, built in northern Europe before then would have been scraped into the sea by the ice; and any less than 60 metres above the then sea level would now be under water. Had there been an interglacial Stonehenge, there would be no evidence of it now.
An archaeologist in 10,000 years’ time, examining a map of the UK above the present 60-metre contour, would conclude that we had no major towns, no nuclear or thermal power stations, no long-span bridges, no parliament, no politicians… in fact, that we were hill farmers with a sideline in electricity from windmills. The paradox disappears if human behaviour did develop gradually over 60,000 years, but all evidence of this development is now erased.
Magheramorne, County Antrim, UK
